1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a trimming information recordable camera which makes it possible to record information on the film for trimming the composition of photographed scene or deciding the field angle at the time of printing the film on a photographic paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is important to decide composition or field angle of the photograph. Today, various types of camera equipped with zoom lens installed therein have been developed which makes it possible to easily change the composition of photographing object or scene by changing the field angle of the lens.
There are two ways for changing the field angle (composition). One is to change the focal length of the lens so as to change the photographing object itself imaged on the film at the time of taking the scene. The other way to change the composition is to trimming the image formed in the film at the time of printing the film on the photographing paper.
To decide the composition of the photograph by trimming the image in the film at the time of printing, the trimming information is recorded in the film so that the information is read at the time of printing the film in the labo-system to trim the film. Such a trimming information recordable camera is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laying Open (KOKAI) No. 62-50743, for example.
Suppose that the image of the film is to be enlarged to twice at the time of printing the film, the possible combination of the photographing lens and the finder magnification is represented in the table-1 as follows.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ FINDER f = 35 to 105 f = 35, f = 70 f = 35 to 70 or 135 TWO FOCAL ZOOM or ZOOM POINTS STEP or STEP ______________________________________ PHOTO. f = 35 1 3 5 LENS f = 35 2 4 6 f = 70 TWO FOC. PNT. ______________________________________
Advantageous combinations in the table-1 are 1, 3 and 6. The combination 1 represents a two-focal point camera including a labo-system. The combination 3 represents a twice magnification zooming camera including a labo-system. Also, the combination 6 represents a three to four-time magnification zooming camera including a labo-system.
The most sophisticated function is obtained from the combination 6 of the table. On the assumption that the trimming information is represented by three bits (T.sub.1, T.sub.2, and T.sub.3), for example, the following table-2 can be obtained.
TABLE 2 ______________________________________ PRINT PHOTO FINDER TRIM. INFO. MAG- P. LENS f T.sub.1 T.sub.2 T.sub.3 NIFY F.L.P. NO. ______________________________________ f = 35 35 0 0 0 1 0 1 39 0 0 1 1.125 0 2 43 0 1 0 1.25 0 3 48 0 1 1 1.375 0 4 52 1 0 0 1.5 0 5 56 1 0 1 1.625 0 6 61 1 1 0 1.75 0 7 65 1 1 1 1.875 0 8 f = 70 70 0 0 0 1 1 9 78 0 0 1 1.125 1 10 87 0 1 0 1.25 1 11 96 0 1 1 1.375 1 12 105 1 0 0 1.5 1 13 113 1 0 1 1.625 1 14 122 1 1 0 1.75 1 15 131 1 1 1 1.875 1 16 ______________________________________ Note: "FINDER f" is focal length of finder view field corresponding to photographing lens; "PRINT MAGNIFY" is correction of magnification at time of printing film; "F.L.P." is focus lens position that represents whether the photographing lens position is at f = 35 or f = 70. F.L.P. signal "0" represents the state of f = 35 while signal "1" represents the state of f = 70; and "P. No." is position number.
The related art mentioned above has problems as follows.
(1) First, with regard to the system 6 of table-1, the finder view field changes according to the steps of table-2. However, actually, the scene is not seen well through the finder which has a view field changing according to table-2. Also, from the standpoint of mechanical structure, in the case where an optical system of the finder is to be assembled comprising cam means, it is more advantageous when the view field change is continuous than when the change is stepping from the view points of the transmission efficiency of the driving force (pressure angle) and the space for the system.
(2) Secondly, the focal point of the photographing lens is changed between the two points of f=35 and f=70 by putting a group of three lenses on the optical axis of the photographing lens or taking the lenses out of the optical axis. Therefore, it takes a certain time for arranging the lenses on or out of the optical axis, which results in that it requires more time to move from the position 8 to the position 9 or vice versa than to move between the other positions in the table-2. This means, in the developing process, the finder view field change is temporarily stopped at the time of moving from the position 8 to the position 9 or vice versa, which degrades the appearance of the print.
Besides, in the labo-system, since it is difficult to continuously change the view field from the aspect of processing time, the trimming process is carried out step by step, which involves in a problem that it becomes necessary to match the timing of each process with each step.
The trimming information recordable camera mentioned above may comprise a writing means for writing information data such as date in the film.
The data is written at a corner of each frame of the film in the form of letters of numerals so that the user can confirm the data. However, in accordance with such a way of writing data, it becomes difficult to read the data depending on the luminance of the object to be taken at the position on the film where the data is to be written. Also, a part of the object in the frame is obscured by the information data.
Also, with regard to the trimming information recordable camera, there is a problem that the data written in a portion to be trimmed off is cut away and not printed. Japanese Patent Application Laying Open (KOKAI) No. 62-50743 discloses a proposal for solving the problem by generating code signals corresponding to the data to be written in the film and writing the code signals in the film at a portion out of the frame where the scene is photographed.
As described in the patent document 62-50743, the data such as the date of photographing written at a portion out of the frame of the film is read by a line sensor, for example, at the time of printing process. When the code signal indicates to print the date, the date is printed at a right end (seen from the back side of the film) in the frame. The code is constituted from 17 bits.
However, in accordance with the camera having the data writing function as disclosed in the Japanese patent document 62-50743, the following problems arise.
1 First, there is a possibility of destroying the data when cutting the film at the time of editing the film after development thereof, the data code being printed at the right end of the frame seen from the back side of the film.
2 Second, it becomes necessary to prepare one light emitting diode (LED) for each bit of the code signal, which rises the cost of the arrangement and necessitates a relatively large space for wiring the arrangement, thus hampering the realization of compact structure.
3 Thirdly, the LEDs for writing the data are disposed right aside the aperture of the camera body, which causes to generate flare and lowers the contrast of the image.
4 Fourthly, to avoid reading errors of the data at the time of printing process, the writing LEDs have to be accurately arranged at predetermined positions.